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New York City officials on Monday introduced a bill that would raise the legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 18 to 21. "The more difficult it is for (young people) to gain access to tobacco products, the less likely they are to start smoking," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

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The Congress, states and cities should consider raising the legal smoking age in the U.S., according to the editorial board of The Washington Post. The board cites a study from the Institute of Medicine that showed cigarette smoking would be reduced by 12% if the legal age was raised to 21. The study's projected decline in smoking would bring health benefits, such as fewer premature deaths, fewer lung cancer deaths and reduced effects of secondhand smoke on children.

The New York City Council voted Wednesday in favor of raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21. The move would make New York the first major U.S. city to prohibit cigarette sales to 18- to 20-year-olds. "This legislation will reduce smoking rates among New Yorkers -- especially young New Yorkers -- sparing them years of nicotine addiction and health problems," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case involving a tobacco industry challenge to a 2009 federal law that requires graphic warning labels on cigarettes, thereby upholding a lower court ruling in favor of the law. However, due to a separate case, the FDA must still conduct more research on the impact of graphic warning labels before implementing new package labels.

Five Democratic senators called on the FDA to take aim at misleading ads for tobacco products. "In the absence of clear regulations, cigarette companies continue to deceptively market their products, misleading consumers about the health consequences that come from smoking," they wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

Researchers using PET imaging found that in the process of smoking a cigarette, smokers' brains gradually take up nicotine. This finding is in contrast with the previous belief that it takes only seven seconds for nicotine to be absorbed by the brain. "Knowing the levels of nicotine that are really getting to the brain gives us clues as to which receptors are more likely to be important for the dependence-producing effects of cigarette smoking," a researcher said.